


Men In Black: Cybertron

by tsundo



Category: Men in Black (Movies), Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Agent D is Danny Bell, Agent G is Whalen I just gave him the name George as a first name, Agent J in this is Jack Burns, Decided to mix both of my special interests together, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23646445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsundo/pseuds/tsundo
Summary: Bumblebee lands on Earth after being told by Optimus that that was where the Autobots were going to meet and seek refuge. What they didn't know were the Men in Black that had been established on the planet. Now Agent J and D are tasked to find out what is going on and what this new planet of robots brings to the table. Charlie and Memo get mixed up in the mess and Agent J and D are conflicted whether or not they should follow protocol or recruit both Memo and Charlie into the MiB and let them remember their experience with Bumblebee or be neuralised and forget Bumblebee and the Autobots forever.
Relationships: Bumblebee/Charlie Watson, Bumblebee/Charlie Watson/Memo, Memo/Charlie Watson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	1. Unauthorised Landing

#  **1987**

**_Brighton Falls, California_  
**

The escape pod flew through space, continuously passing through nebulas and various planets. Bumblebee stayed huddled in the shuttle, pressing the touchpad as he looked out the window. The vast emptiness of space passed by until Bumblebee dropped out of quantum drive, the Earth suddenly in view. Bumblebee gasped as he looked at the sight, the blue and green orb reflecting in the window. His bright blue optics brightened as he looked at how different it was compared to Cybertron. The escape pod began to tremble as it entered Earth’s atmosphere, the gravity pulling him down towards it. He braced for impact as he sat tight, plummeting down, the hull of the ship creaking from the stress. To avoid destroying the ship in planetfall, he pressed a few more buttons on the keypad that slowed the ship enough to only collide into the Earth by leaving a small crater as it skid across the ground, leaving a trail. Bumblebee was just lucky enough to have landed in a forest, crashing through some trees in the process. Bumblebee unstrapped himself from the escape pod and scrambled to get outside. He managed to land on the night side of the planet, the forest shrouded in darkness, moonlight filtering through the deciduous branches. A branch snapped behind him and he whirled around, readying his cannon at the ready towards the noise only to see an organic lifeform looking directly at him. It was four legged and had pronged horns on top. One of its ears twitched before turning around and bounding off. After a moment, Bumblebee lowered his weapon and sighed in relief before looking up at the stars. There was a certain peace that Bee was unfamiliar with. All that fighting on Cybertron to be here on Earth, an unknown environment with _no_ fighting. 

“I’m a long way from home right now.” 

That peace didn’t last long however. He saw a jet fly through the night sky and immediately knew that it was a Decepticon, watching it make his way towards him. His mask dropped down as he went into combat mode and began running as the Seeker dove down and began to fly low towards his direction. The jet deployed its missiles as it grew close, Bumblebee continuing to run. The missiles collided close to him, tossing debris up beside him. When the jet grew close, Bumblebee looked up to see a cliffside and climbed up it, the jet growing closer. Bumblebee managed to reach a ledge and jumped off it as soon as the jet began to transform out of his altmode, transforming his servo into a sword. He landed on the jet, throwing it out of its flight direction and the jet grunted as Bumblebee latched on, Bumblebee plunging his sword. The two tumbled down towards the Earth and collided into the dirt. The two fought on the ground for a moment before the jet managed to get on top and scrambled up, grabbing Bumblebee by the neck, his jet thrusters activating to lift the two of them up. The jet threw him against the wall of the cliff, dragging him up. Bee struggled to break free before he hit against the wall and threw himself away from it, getting behind the jet and beginning to stab at various areas before ripping at a thruster on the Seeker’s back. The Seeker fell, letting go of Bumblebee and the two landed on the cliffside at a standoff. He shifted his servos into gunmode and shot at Bumblebee, Bumblebee throwing up his arms to defend himself from the gunshots as the Seeker grew closer. 

“Did you think you could hide?” the Seeker hissed as he grabbed Bumblebee’s neck once again, holding him right over the edge. “Now you’re going to tell me where your friends are hiding.”

“I’ll never talk, Dirge,” Bumblebee snarled. The Seeker shifted his free servo into a needle.

“Is that right?” Dirge said. “Then let’s make it official,” he replied darkly. The Seeker then plunged the needle into Bee’s neck, digging for a moment before catching onto his voice box and ripping it out in front of him. He couldn’t see the voice box dropped to the side before Bumblebee was dropped off the cliff, colliding with rock and debris before hitting the bottom with a loud thud. The Seeker followed after, landing a few metres away and approached him. “Bumblebee. As a member of the Autobot resistance,” Dirge lifted him from the ground. “You are a traitor to Cybertron. And hereby sentenced to death.” Bee used one last burst of energy to grab at his servos, ripping the plating off to reveal the missiles Dirge hadn’t used earlier and plunged it into the Seeker’s chassis, using his sword to slice the servo holding him off and threw himself back, far away from him. Dirge grabbed at the missile to attempt to unlodge it from his chassis and Bumblebee transformed his servo into his cannon, Dirge letting out a loud “No!” before Bee shot, causing the missile to explode, taking Dirge along with it. Various parts of the Seeker landed beside him and Bumblebee stood up, limping as he left the cliffside. Alert notifications were going off in his hub, that his memory cells were failing as well as other parts of his system. He walked through the forest until he finally found a clearing, collapsing in front of a lake. He lifted his helm weakly, looking for something to blend into as sensors showed there were organics nearby as well as vehicles. The last thing he saw before shutting down was a yellow vehicle.

**_MiB Headquarters: San Francisco_ **

Various Men in Black agents walked across the facility’s floor, chattering happening amongst agents and their partners. Footsteps echoed across the floor as an agent walked down the center of the headquarters, coffee cup in hand. There was a beep on the large monitor in front of them as he grew near, approaching a man who was standing, hands behind his back and looking up towards the screen. 

“Anything new, G?” Agent G turned towards him with a smirk on his face.

“Eager to start the day, huh, J? Well, I suppose you never were one to take a break,” G sighed. “We’ve had two unauthorised landings up in Brighton Falls last night as well as a few frightened campers that wanna find out why their night was filled with missile blasts and explosions. Why don’t you take D and take a drive up there to check it out?” 

“We’ll go check it out,” J nodded. He approached D who was napping at his desk and J knocked on the edge. D jolted awake and blinked blearily towards J. “Didn’t get enough sleep?”

“Long night last night, don’t ask,” D replied. 

“Come on, we got an unauthorised landing we gotta check out as well as some unhappy campers,” J replied. 

“Huh, most exciting thing to happen all week,” D said, standing up from his desk.

“Yeah from what G told me, there was a firefight last night,” J said, the two entered the garage and went into their car, driving out into the San Francisco highway. It was currently 6:00am for Earth time, J and D having been used to Centaurian time. 

“Coordinates tell us it’s a campsite in upper Brighton,” D said. 

“You ever been camping, D?” J asked.

“What are you talking about? We’ve been on plenty of camping trips before we joined MiB.” J only laughed in response as he recalled the memories. 

“Too bad we can’t do it anymore. Not unless headquarters gives us an authorised area to camp. Unless we quit.”

“Are you kidding? Opportunity of a lifetime to work with aliens and you think about quitting?” D laughed. J only chuckled in response. 

“Would be nice to find a campsite though,” J admitted. 

The two finally arrived at the campsite, both of them stepping out onto the hard packed dirt road leading into the campsite area. There was a camp host area near the entrance, a well loved RV with packs of wood settled in front of it. J and D approached the RV, D going up to knock on the door. J stood back and watched as the door opened. A middle aged man, closer to his 50s opened the door and looked at D and J. 

“Can I help you?” he asked in a gruff voice. “You don’t look dressed for camping.”

“Hi, we’re detectives Bart and Kyle from the Brighton Falls police department, here to check the disturbance from last night,” D said.

“You guys came quick,” the man replied in surprise.

“Can you tell us where the disturbance was specifically?”

“A lot of the campers were telling me they heard it across the lake near the cliffside. Lot of em came up knockin on my RV last night and causing a ruckus.”

“I see, well, we’ll go check it out and let you know what it was.” D and J walked off after that, the old man looking at the two with suspicion before shutting the door to the RV. J and D then began walking down a trail path after that. When they got to the lake, they were both confused to see a yellow Volkswagen Beetle sitting across the lake. They continued to walk alongside the lake until they got to the other side furthest away from the campsite. J was the first to approach the Volkswagen, seeing how beat up it was. 

“Someone must have just left this here to rust,” D surmised. The two looked up towards a cliff face, glanced at each other and continued on their trek, ignoring the neglected vehicle. After walking through the forest, D and J came upon a wreckage, remains of whatever happened last night scattered everywhere right in front of the cliff face. The two immediately drew their guns, ready to respond if needed and looked around. D drew close to the wreckage and looked around, seeing what seemed to be pieces of a jet’s wing as well as other various parts that would have belonged to a plane. “What the hell? Did some guy crash his jet last night?” 

“I don’t see a body, let’s keep moving,” J replied. They passed the cliffside and went further into the forest. The two then saw the remains of trees, as if they were collided into. The two continued down the broken treeline until they came upon a large, long skidmark, a deep gash into the earth a few metres before stopping. Their gaze turned upwards as they saw the wreckage of the ship in front of them. It almost towered in front of the two and their faces were visibly surprised and in awe. 

“J?” D called out, not taking his eyes off the ship. 

“Yeah?” J replied, gaze still locked in front of him.

“Whatever landed here last night, it’s _big_ ,” D said.

“Yeah, I see that,” J breathed. J took out his communicator and called back to headquarters. “I’m gonna need a clean up crew down here now and a trailer to tow the spaceship that landed here. Whatever was in it though, we’re still trying to find out what it was.” J went ahead and tried to find an opening to the ship, walking around to find a large entrance. D followed closely behind, aiming his gun in case anything happened. When the two entered, the shuttle was empty. “That’s not good.”

“Yeah,” D said. 

“Better hope clean up gets here soon and that none of those campers came out here to investigate,” J said as the two walked briskly out of the ship.

“We’re gonna have to neuralise all of them just in case,” D replied. They went back over towards the cliffside once again and D lingered around the area where all the jet parts were scattered, looking at everything a little bit closer. When his eyes landed on something that didn’t normally belong to a jet, he almost panicked.

“J?” D called out.

“What?” J replied. 

“You’re gonna want to take a look at this.” J drew near D to see what he was looking at and his jaw dropped at what he saw. In front of them lay the head of a robot, optics completely dead and offline, facial structures similar to a humans but the entire head itself was much much larger. 

“Oh my god.” 

“The jet was _that?_ ” D asked. J began to walk quickly back towards the campsite. D ran to catch up, jogging behind him. When they reached the edge of the lake again, they saw the cleanup crew arriving and getting ready to take everything back to headquarters as well as neuralise the campers. “Wait, there were two unauthorised landings up here right?” D then asked. “Then, where’s the second one?” The two stopped and D looked back. “I think whatever was in that ship killed that jet.”

“Then we’re gonna have to look for the other one and get it to headquarters immediately before it starts killing any civilians.”


	2. A New Car

The sound of an alarm went off, beeping incessantly before a hand shot out from underneath the covers, rummaging around the nightstand to find the alarm clock and soon the button to stop the alarm. Once it was pressed, there was shuffling within the bed as that hand soon reached out to grab a Walkman. A button was pressed on the Walkman once the hand found it and the figure in the bed shuffled, sitting up and adjusting the headphones, having been on the night before, before getting out. Her hand went ahead and touched a photo of her and her father that had been on the nightstand, murmuring a “Morning, dad”. 

She scratched at her head for a bit, tussling her long hair as she went into her bathroom to get ready for the day. After brushing her teeth, jamming out to the song that played and getting dressed, she went to leave the room, pushing the headphones down to her neck as she neared the door, Walkman still in her pocket. She then glanced over at a box of diving trophies that had been sitting in the corner for a while and stood there for a moment, hesitant before going over and picking up the box. Upon entering the kitchen, she could hear her mother giggling and walked in on her and her boyfriend kissing. She stopped for a moment and the two broke apart. 

“Uh oh!” her mom’s boyfriend said, raising his hands in the air. “Caught.”

“Gross, Ron.” She pushed past her mom and Ron with an ‘excuse me’. She opened a cabinet, pulling out the trashcan and slid the box of the trophies into the trash.

“Are those your diving trophies, Charlie?” her mom asked. 

“Taking up too much space in my room,” Charlie lied. 

“You’re gonna regret doing that,” her mom replied. Charlie, not wanting to continue the conversation went ahead and changed the subject.

“Where’s breakfast?”

“Breakfast is conveniently located in the cupboards and the fridge,” her mom said, gesturing towards the cupboards and the fridge. “Try to help out… a little.”

“Since I’m such a big kid now, making my own breakfast and what have you… You know how I could be an even bigger help around here, mom? If I had a car.”

“Charlie,” her mom replied in exasperation.

“What do you know, it’s my birthday tomorrow, perfect timing for a large cash gift. You know, $500 is really all I need to finish the Corvette.”

“I don’t have $500, you know how much nurses make.”

“‘Half as much as doctors, twice the work.’ Right?” Charlie quoted.

“Tell you what kiddo, I have a job interview tomorrow, if all goes well, I’ll have you swimming in car parts,” Ron said, turning towards Charlie.

“I prefer cash. Ron,” Charlie said, looking straight at him. 

“Don’t be rude,” her mom sighed. Charlie didn’t respond, only giving a tight smile before there was a knock on the door. She got up and answered it, knowing who it was. When she opened the door, it was her friend Memo, a guy who befriended her before the school year ended and went into summer break. 

“You ready to go to work?” Memo asked in a chipper manner. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Charlie replied in a tired tone. She didn’t wave goodbye to her family and simply left, getting on her bike, Memo getting on his. Once the two got to the port, the two went to their respective places of work, Charlie reluctantly getting in her work outfit and began her work for the day. Charlie, being much more distracted than usual when carrying the tray of lemonade and food, bumped into one of the guys from her high school, spilling everything. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry,” Charlie apologised as she got on the ground to clean it up. The girls surrounding the guy couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Someone’s getting fired~” one of them sang.

“If I had to wear  _ that,  _ I would pray to be fired.” The guy though, not necessarily caring, took off his shirt. 

“Let’s go,” he said, walking off, the girls following after. She looked back at the group, feeling bitter. When her shift finally ended, she left, passing by Memo. 

“You wanna hang out after work?” Memo asked. 

“Not today, I’m heading over to the repair shop after work,” she said. She then looked back towards Memo. “Unless you wanna come with?”

“I’m down,” Memo smiled. 

“Alright, then let’s go,” she smiled back.

The two arrived at the repair, parking their bikes to the side as Charlie went first. 

“Hey, Uncle Hank,” she said, approaching an old man who seemed to be fiddling with a radio. He hit it and uttered a ‘come on!’

“Are you still workin on that damn car?” Uncle Hank said, not taking his eyes off the radio.

“Are you still workin on that damn personality?” she quipped. Uncle Hank stopped for a moment and looked up towards her, noticing Memo behind her as well.

“Hey, kiddo,” Uncle Hank said, acknowledging him. 

“What have you got for me,” Charlie then asked. 

“Whatever you want. Russians are gonna blow us all to hell anyway,” he muttered. 

“That’s the spirit,” Charlie replied, Memo following her close as she walked off.

“Hey kid,” one of the mechanics called out to Charlie. “Hand me the three eighths, would you?”

“You working on the carburetor, Bill?” Charlie asked, going over to the tool box. The mechanic replied with a mmhmm. “You need the half inch,” she said as she handed the wrench over.

“I said the three-” once he used it and the lug nut turned, he gave a huh in response. He popped his head out of the hood and looked towards Charlie as the two were walking away. “Thanks, kid,” he called out.

“Yup!” The two entered the junkyard portion of the repair shop now, the two walking around, Charlie looking for parts and Memo simply looking at all the things left there. It wasn’t often he was able to go to the junkyard so being there was always interesting for him. He saw Charlie climb into a boat, fiddling with something in the back before jumping off the tip of the boat. The boat then tipped over and Memo sucked in a breath as it collided into the others, producing a domino effect before stopping on a Beetle, the cloth covering it moving to the side. Both Charlie and Memo glanced at each other before Charlie approached the car.

“Whoa,” she breathed, taking the cover off completely. 

“Check out the honeycomb under this!” Memo commented. She opened the door to the Beetle and saw the key was still in the ignition. 

“Memo, look,” she said, pointing at the key. For the first time in a few months she looked more excited than ever. 

“Turn it on,” Memo urged excitedly, a smile on his face, happy that his friend was more cheerful. The radio turned on, the light coming to life, buzzing for a moment as if it were trying to find a frequency. When the engine didn’t kick to life as she wanted though, she turned the car off and slumped in the driver’s seat with a sigh. Memo, not wanting her to feel awful again, placed his hand on her shoulder in comfort. “It’s nothing a little tinkering won’t fix,” he said quietly, a lilt in his voice saying that there was still hope. She gave him a soft smile then looked around, seeing the bees buzzing about in it and panicked for a moment, getting out of the car. When Memo saw the bees in there, his eyes widened, getting out of the way for Charlie to get out quickly. She shut the door and grabbed her box of parts. 

“Let’s go,” she said. 

“Aren’t you gonna ask for the car?” Memo asked as he walked beside her.

“Not yet,” Charlie replied. “I still got the Corvette, you know that,” she said. “Plus I wanna get home early so I can work on it,” she said in a more serious tone. Memo’s smile faded and he looked at Charlie with worry now.

“Alright,” Memo conceded. “I just. Call me if you need anything then, alright? I know how important fixing that Corvette is to you.” Charlie didn’t respond this time and once the two entered the repair shop, Charlie dropped the parts box in front of Uncle Hank. “I’ll give you $30 bucks for all of it.” Uncle Hank chuckled. 

“I can get twice that much for the coil alone!” he said. 

“From who? I’m the only one that comes in here, Memo just comes with me to hang out, I don’t even know how you’re still open,” Charlie retorted. Memo then rummaged through his pockets and placed down a $20 dollar bill. She then looked at Memo in confusion. “What are you doing?”

“Consider it an early birthday present,” Memo replied. 

“Just take it, go, my show is on,” Uncle Hank said hastily, shooing the both of them away. The two went to walk away before Charlie stopped for a moment, turning back towards him.

“Hey, where did you get that Beetle?” Charlie asked. 

“I swear to God, ever since they put up that dumbass tower, I can’t get a signal to watch my shows,” Uncle Hank muttered, ignoring Charlie’s question. Not wanting to wait, Charlie left it at that and left the repair shop. Memo and Charlie biked beside each other on the way home, the two completely silent before Charlie spoke up. 

“You didn’t have to spend money on me, by the way,” she said, drawing near her house. 

“It’s your birthday tomorrow,” Memo shrugged. He stopped in front of his garage and stood there for a moment. “You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Memo then asked. Once Charlie got off her bike, she took the box of parts and stood facing away from him and was silent for a moment. When she didn’t reply, Memo frowned and he shifted a little. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He entered the garage and Charlie went into hers, to where she set the box of parts down in front of the Corvette. It was an old Corvette, but with how long it was sitting in the garage, it looked almost brand new, excepting the fact it was currently inoperable. The creeper she used to try to repair the car leaned on a tool cabinet. She kicked it, using her leg to position it and grabbed the tools she needed before laying down on the creeper. 

“Alright, let’s see what I need to do now,” she huffed. Hours passed by, Charlie missing the call of her mother calling her to dinner as she worked tirelessly on the Corvette. After a few minutes of continued frustration, her grunting and commenting at how difficult the Corvette was being, she threw herself out from under the car and groaned. 

”Damn it,” she sighed, throwing the tool aside and her hands up into the air, placing them on top of her head. “I give up,” she said with finality. Her hands moved to cover her face as she sobbed quietly. “I can’t do this without you.” She continued to sob into her hands for the next few minutes, heaving as she laid on the creeper. When she finally calmed down, taking deep breaths, she stood up, leaving everything out and left the garage. She looked between going to Memo’s house or going back inside. She went back inside just for a moment to see what was going on and went in to see her family sitting, eating in front of the television. Seeing them laughing together, being happy, filled Charlie with more grief than ever so she turned briskly around and walked to Memo’s house, stopping at the door as if to knock and stopped herself. Lowering her hand, she left and went back into her house, grabbing some food and going to her room to sulk. Soon after she fell asleep in her bed and awoke the next morning to the alarm. 

With a groan she pressed the alarm and got out of bed, going to the bathroom. She stopped for a moment and looked at herself in the mirror, noticing how disheveled she looked but at the moment she couldn’t bring herself to care. 

“Happy birthday,” she said softly. She didn’t bother to wash up, instead simply leaving the room and stopping at the photo of her and her dad once again. This was the first year without him for her birthday and she looked at it with tired eyes. “I miss you, dad,” she murmured. Forcing herself out of the room, she walked into the living room to get some food, looking at Ron and her mom and announced herself. “Hey.”

“Good morning birthday girl!” Ron exclaimed, turning to look at her. Once he saw her state, his enthusiasm dropped. “You look… nice.” Charlie didn’t respond and her mom kissed her on the cheek. 

“Happy birthday, baby, I love you,” she said, going towards the kitchen counter to grab the present she had placed in a gift bag. “Come on, open your present, I’m gonna be late for work,” she said, pushing it towards Charlie. 

“Thanks, mom,” Charlie said with genuine gratitude, a smile on her face. When she took out the paper, she grabbed what was in it and her smile dropped. “Helmet, with… daffodils.” Charlie’s mom then started talking about helmet safety and Charlie simply just looked at her with disbelief, slightly annoyed that out of all presents to get, she got a helmet. 

“I actually got a gift for you too, Charlie. I mean. It’s small but. It’s from the heart,” Ron said, holding something behind his back. He then revealed it, handing her a book with the title “Smile for a Change: The Benefits of a Positive Attitude”. She took it, biting her lip, realising that this was in fact the worst present to get. “A smile is a powerful thing. It releases endorphins! It says to the world, ‘I’m fun and approachable.’” He gave her a smile. Charlie looked at him in utter disbelief at what she was hearing right now and looked towards her mother who didn’t help at all. “You know, there’s a whole chapter in here about how people who smile more often actually have more friends.” He flipped through the book to show and Charlie was stunned.

“You guys realise I have Memo as a friend… right?” Charlie then said. 

“Well, he’s just  _ one _ friend. Plus I really think it’s gonna change your whole outlook if you smile more often.” The two smiled at Charlie and she was not at all amused. After that she left the room with a polite thank you and went back up to her room, flopping down on the bed, still processing the fact that Ron really just gave her  _ THAT _ . After lying down for a moment and thinking, she sprung up and bound out of the house. She went and stopped at Memo’s house once again, this time knocking on the door with ferocity. His mother opened the door instead of Memo and was pleasantly surprised. 

“Oh! Hello, Charlie, happy birthday, I’m guessing you’re here to see Guillermo?” she said with a smile. 

“Yeah, I was wondering if he wanted to hang out,” Charlie replied quickly. 

“Guillermo! Come downstairs, Charlie’s here!” Memo’s mom called out. She smiled at Charlie as she let her in. Charlie went ahead and sat down as she waited for Memo. 

“You want something to drink or eat, honey?” Memo’s mom called from the kitchen. 

“I’ll have to pass on it this time, Mrs. Gutierrez, thank you though!” Charlie replied politely. Memo came bounding down the stairs, pulling his shoes on.

“Where we going?”” Memo asked. 

“Back to the repair shop, we’re getting that Beetle,” Charlie said. Memo smiled and the two went ahead down to the repair shop. Charlie approached Uncle Hank like a man on a mission, walking briskly up towards him. Memo was surprised with how energetic she was. “I want the Beetle,” she said with finality. 

“What?” Uncle Hank said. 

“The yellow Beetle, I want it,” she repeated. “I’ll make you a deal, if I get that thing started, it’s mine.”

“That’s no deal, that’s just you taking my car,” Uncle Hank replied. 

“If I get it started, I keep it and, and I work here every day for a year!” Charlie said with desperation. “I will scrub the grease off the floors, okay, I will pick up and organise every scrap of paper in this place, I’ll even detail your horrible, disgusting toilets,” she finished.

“I’ll help work to pay it off too if that’s what it takes to help Charlie get her Beetle,” Memo piped in. 

“Please, it’s my birthday,” Charlie then said.

“Sorry, no deal,” Uncle Hank said. Charlie’s face dropped even more. “Cus we ain’t hiring.” There was a pause. “It’s yours, kid. Happy birthday.” A smile then grew on Charlie’s face as she processed what just happened. 

“Thank you,” she said with joy. She turned away from the counter and bound off back into the junkyard. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she repeated, grabbing a toolbox, Memo running off after her. 

“And my toilets are gorgeous,” Uncle Hank said offhandedly. Charlie let out a laugh and called out to Memo. 

“Come on! I’m gonna need your help!” she said. Memo couldn’t help but smile and laugh along with her as he chased after her, following her to the yellow Beetle. She set down the toolbox and placed her hands on her hips. 

“So...” Memo started. “Get anything good for your birthday?” he asked. Charlie snorted, riding on the high of fixing the car. 

“Ron got me a book telling me to smile more often,” Charlie said as she popped the hood. 

“You’re kidding,” Memo deadpanned. 

“Nope! Said I’d get more friends if I smiled more,” she said, beginning to work on the hood. 

“Wow.”

“You know you’d expect my mom of all people to understand what I’m going through, but she’s not!” Charlie ranted. Memo noticed how the topic was beginning to upset her and not wanting her to feel awful especially today, he leaned on the car, getting her attention. He swiped a finger on the hood and rubbed the dirt between his fingers. 

“You wanna clean the car while we’re at it and while I’m here?” he asked with a friendly smile. “I don’t know too much about cars like you do so I won’t be much help getting the Beetle to work,” he shrugged. Charlie smiled at him and he couldn’t help but smile more towards her. “I’ll go get the bucket and sponges,” he said, getting up. 

“Hey, Memo?” Charlie called out. He stopped for a moment and looked back at her. “Thanks,” she said. “Really.” Memo smiled at her once again and he shrugged. 

“That’s what friends are for, right?” He walked off after that to get the supplies he needed to clean the car and left Charlie to continue working on fixing the Beetle. When he came back, he threw a wet sponge at her and she jumped for a moment as it hit her, the water getting all over her. She whirled around and feigned anger as Memo laughed before taking the other sponge from the bucket and chucking it at him, hitting him right in the face. He stumbled for a moment in surprise and soon the two of them were having a water fight, sponges being thrown. Laughter filled the air and when the two were properly soaked, the laughter died down and happiness was abuzz. Charlie went back to fixing the car as Memo did his best to clean the car. After a couple hours, Memo threw the sponges back into the bucket, now dirty and murky. “Well, that’s the best I can do for now, I need a hose to get everything else off,” Memo said, wiping his hands. “Plus the inside needs to be cleaned,” he sighed. He then looked over to Charlie who had been diligently working. “How far have you gotten?”

“He’ll probably be working in the next… hour,” Charlie said. 

“He?” Memo asked. Charlie’s stomach then growled and she groaned. “You wanna get lunch?” he then asked. 

“I need to get this working so I’ll have to pass.”

“Well, I’m useless after cleaning the car so I can bike back home to get us some lunch, or dinner by the time you’re done,” Memo said. 

“Thanks,” she said. “You really don’t have to, I can just eat when I get home.”

“Come on, it’s your birthday! I’ll be back,” he said, running off to go home. She scoffed, laughing quietly to herself as she went back to working on the car. The hour passed by quickly as Memo finally came back with food. He tossed Charlie a Hi-C as well as a bottle of water.

“Really, Hi-C?” Charlie teased. 

“I’d have TaB but my mom doesn’t like having too much soda in the house,” Memo sighed, stabbing the straw into his Hi-C and drinking it. “My mom made pasta salad today so I was able to snag some for the both of us.”

“You didn’t eat when you got home?” Charlie asked, crouching on the ground and finishing up on some final repairs.

“Came home and went straight here once I got everything, my legs would be killing me if you didn’t install that motor on my bike,” Memo said. 

“Yeah, well you don’t have to wear a helmet for having a motor on your bike,” Charlie said bitterly. 

“I’m guessing that’s something your mom got you?” Memo asked. 

“Bingo,” she said. She finally stood up and patted the dust and dirt off her hands. “Okay!” she exclaimed. “I think he’s done.” Memo perked up and the two ate for a bit before Charlie got into the driver’s seat and placed her hands on the steering wheel, Memo taking the passenger’s. She turned the key to the ignition.“Oh, god, come on, please,” she said softly. The engine sputtered for a moment and then stalled, Charlie turned it again and the engine came to life and joy came over her. Memo was visibly excited as well and watching her excitement only made him more excited. “Oh my… oh my god! Oh my god, thank you so much I love you!” Charlie exclaimed to the car. 

“Yes!” Memo exclaimed. She pressed on the gas this time and drove forward, slowly driving the Beetle out of the junkyard. The car engine rumbling as she drove. When she passed by the opening of the repair shop, she waved at Uncle Hank and Bill, who were watching her. Uncle Hank waved back and Charlie went ahead and took the car out on the road, driving home. The sun was beginning to set. “So...” Memo started as Charlie drove. “You wanna finish cleaning him when we get back to your house?” Charlie sent him a smile from aside. 

“He?” Charlie teased, repeating what he said from earlier. 

“Hey, it’s growing on me,” he defended. The two laughed and once they got home, they immediately got to work on cleaning the car finally. Memo had the wise idea to spray her every now and then, Charlie taking the hose in revenge and soaking him as they cleaned out the car, leaving it sparkling inside and out. When Memo had to go, Charlie stopped him one more time. 

“Hey, thanks again,” she said. “For everything,” she added, her smile beaming towards him. 

“Happy birthday, Charlie,” he said before going inside. Charlie couldn’t help but feel warm and fuzzy inside as she felt happiness for the first time in months. She drove the car into the garage now, pulling the garage door shut and placed her hands on her hips as she looked at the car. “Man. Looks amazing,” she breathed. There was then a metallic clunk as something fell beneath the car and she creeped down to look at what it was. When she looked under, it was something she’d never seen before and grabbed the creeper as well as a flashlight, sliding under the car. She looked around a little bit with the flashlight before going back and stopping on what looked like a face. After shining the light on it for a few seconds, the optics then came to life as blue light showered her face and suddenly the car stood up, transforming out of it. She laid there for a moment, watching it all happen before sliding out and standing up slowly, heart loudly pounding in her chest as she breathed quickly. She stepped back as she looked at the figure standing before her and stood frozen as it looked at her. 

“Oh my god,” she whispered. Its helm then tilted to the side and Charlie freaked out, turning around and running towards the door, grabbing the handle. Whatever it was got spooked as well and fell back, hitting the ceiling only to have a kite fall on it. It stumbled around for a bit in confusion as Charlie watched before it got the kite off and sat in the far corner, hugging its legs. She closed the door slowly, realising whatever it was, it wasn’t a threat and went to approach it until her mom opened the garage door. 

“Charlie, what was that noise?” her mom asked drearily and Charlie panicked, turning back around.

“Nothing! I’m fine. Mom, you should go back to bed. Everything’s fine.” She didn’t realise how late it was. Time flew when she was having fun. 

“What the hell is  _ that? _ ” her mom asked, stepping into the garage.

“Um,” Charlie said, looking for an explanation.

“What is that car doing in our garage?” her mom gestured. 

“Car?” Charlie repeated quietly. She turned around to see whatever it was back in the Beetle form. “Oh that, uh, car…” she sighed, turning back to her mom. “Is my car. Uncle Hank gave it to me. It runs,” she said with a smile. 

“Yeah,” her mom replied. “Those aren’t safe. I wish you would’ve told me before you brought it home.”

“Okay, sorry, uh,” Charlie said quickly in response, trying to get her mom to leave. “Um, I’m in the middle of some stuff, mom.”

“Ok,” her mom said. “I’ll get out of your hair but… tell me things, sometime, I’m your mother.” Charlie kept responding with an okay, trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

“Good night,” Charlie said, pushing her out the doorway. 

“It really runs?” her mom asked. 

“Yeah, it really runs,” Charlie replied quickly, shutting the door on her. She turned back towards the car and approached it carefully, placing a hand on the hood. “You still in there?” The side of the hood fell off in response and Charlie caught it in response, placing it gently on the ground. “Ok… A little jumpy… I’m sorry,” she said as she put it back together. “Okay…” she said, kneeling down with her wrench. The car then transformed again, standing up before her before looking at her and going back to huddle in the corner, it rose its arm in defense to hide. She stood up slowly as she approached. “Hi,” she said as she walked. When it reacted fearfully, she crouched back down. “Oh god, are you… Do you speak?” she asked. When it tried to respond, it looked down with dejection, unable to articulate. When its optics landed on the wrench Charlie was holding, it stood up, holding its servos to its throat in fear. She stood up quickly, putting the wrench in her pocket behind her as her breath quickened and she raised both her hands towards it. “I won’t hurt you,” she said quietly. It whirred and looked at both her hands before leaning down ever so slowly and leaned into her touch. She looked at it in awe and let out a soft gasp. “Can you… understand me?” It nodded in response and she raised her other hand to touch its face. A million questions were running in her head. “What are you? Where did you come from?” she asked and suddenly it pulled away. “Okay, it’s okay,” she said. It then raised its servos slightly, pointing at her as it almost poked her sternum. “You like my shirt?” she asked. “You a metal fan?” It shook its head and poked her sternum this time and she looked down. “Oh! Me,” she said. “Who am I.” Its optics brightened and widened as it looked at her. “Oh, I’m...” she gulped as she looked up at it with wonder. “Charlie. Charlie Watson,” she corrected, closing her eyes for a moment and shaking her head. “I’m 18, today, actually it’s my birthday today.” She paused. “What’s your name?“ she then asked. 

When Bumblebee looked within his memory files, there was only a faint ping as to what his name was, who he was. But everything else came up as corrupted, damaged, inaccessible. He couldn’t remember where he was from or why he was here. Bumblebee went to try to answer but was met with nothing as his voice synthesiser didn’t work. He didn’t know why it didn’t work. He buzzed in sadness as he looked at her for a moment. 

“You don’t know or you don’t have a name?” she asked carefully. He looked away and buzzed sadly. How he was going to communicate what his name was was going to be almost impossible. Even if the universal translators were still working in his systems, he still had no voice. He then had an idea and pointed his servos down on the ground in front of him. If he couldn’t say it verbally, maybe he could say it in their written language. “You sound like a little bumblebee,” she then said softly and Bee snapped his helm towards her in surprise, filials standing up. “Bumblebee? Is that what your name is?” she then asked. Bee nodded his helm vigorously as excitement overtook him. Charlie then gave him a smile as she watched him. “Bumblebee,” she said with confidence this time. “Matches your outfit too,” she grinned. She then heard a knock on the door outside and dashed to it to see who it was. It was Memo and he had… a cake? She looked back towards Bumblebee who had already transformed back into the Beetle and opened the door. “Hey!” Charlie said. 

“Hey, uh. My mom wanted me to drop this cake off for you, turns out she baked it for you for your birthday and wanted me to give it to you before the end of the day,” Memo said, holding it out to her. 

“Uh huh,” Charlie said, distracted. 

“Is something wrong?” Memo then asked. She thought about it for a moment and then pulled Memo in, locking the garage door. “Uh, Charlie? Wanna tell me what’s up?”

“Memo, I need you to make sure you don’t tell  _ anyone _ about this,” Charlie said as she paced in the garage. 

“I won’t, I won’t but where should I put the cake?” Memo said. Charlie pointed at a fairly empty workbench and Memo placed the cake down, turning towards her. “Now what is it you wanted to tell me?”

“Promise me you won’t freak out and for the love of god don’t scream,” she said gesturing with her hands to keep it down. Memo pretended to zip his lips and Charlie lowered her arms with a sigh. 

“Ok, it’s safe to come out, Bumblebee,” she said. She was looking towards the Beetle and Memo looked towards Charlie and back towards the car. Nothing happened for a few moments and Memo grew confused.

“Uh...” There were then a few clicks of gears and soon the car transformed in front of Memo and his eyes widened in surprise at what he just saw, falling backwards onto his bum. Soon Bumblebee was standing in front of him and immediately slouched, pulling his arms towards him in nervousness as he backed up. Memo pointed, stuttering. “He-he’s a, a robot,” Memo said, swallowing down any fear. 

“Yeah,” Charlie said. 

“Do you know where he’s from?” Memo asked. Charlie shook her head. “Can he speak?”

“It doesn’t look like he can,” Charlie replied. “He grabbed at his throat earlier so I’m thinking something… happened to his voice.” 

“Charlie, what are we gonna do, we can’t just… have a robot living in your garage,” Memo said. 

“I know but, he’s scared, don’t you see that?” Charlie said, gesturing towards him. “We gotta help him. Maybe we can help him remember where he came from.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Memo asked. Charlie didn’t respond for a moment. 

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “But we have to try at least.” Memo stood up from the floor and placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“Alright, I’ll help you,” Memo said. He then looked up towards Bumblebee and huffed. “Man, this must be a weird birthday for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I made some tweaks between Memo and Charlie's relationship! That with them being friends in the beginning since I wanted to expand on their dynamic a little bit more. For now, Memo's trying to be as supportive as possible for Charlie since he knows she's going through a hard time, it's the love he has for her as a friend that keeps them together. The two do end up crushing on each other but I'm gonna make it a little slowburn for that ;)


	3. Searching for Answers

“How do we not have any information about these guys?” J exclaimed as he walked down the center of headquarters, a large hovering hand cart hauling the remaining pieces of the jet from months prior to another area after researched on. “We have a potentially dangerous killing machine out there and we have  _ nothing _ on them?”

“We have more things to worry about, J,” G called out from above. “If you’ve been paying attention to those around you, you’ll realise the aliens in here have been skittish ever since you brought that jet in. I’m thinking they know something we don’t. There’s been two more unauthorised landings, this time at a gas station in the middle of nowhere Nevada, I’m guessing these two ‘guests’ are from the same planet the other two unauthorised landings were. Take D and see what’s going on out there.” J nodded and the two set off to Nevada. Once D and J got in the car, D turned towards J.

“How are we gonna find that one gas station exactly?” D asked.

“See if there’s any hot sheets when we get into Nevada, otherwise truckstop gossip works,” J said as he got out onto the highway. In hopes of finding information quickly, J stopped at the nearest truckstop once entering Nevada, D and J getting out to ‘hang out’. The two entered the convenience store, the smell of cheap coffee and packaged foods filling the air. J and D split up and perused around the area, looking at the foods and drinks before promptly leaving and going to the semi truck parking lot. The sound of chatter was happening at a small picnic area, where various truckers were sitting, smoking, and having a laugh. When the two drew near, they caught on the words ‘meteor’ and ‘crater’. That was when J introduced himself into the conversation. 

“Hello, gentlemen, I’m Ben Micheals, I work with the gas company in this area, I’ve heard there was an explosion at one of our gas stations recently and we’d like to know which certain area. 

“Hah! Guess the owners there didn’t tell you the details, I heard the gas station was up near Battle Mountain, called Guzzlin n Gas, if they forgot to tell you that too,” the trucker snorted.

“Heard Mikey got caught up in that too,” another one said. 

“Meteor darn crashed straight into him and flipped his semi, man’s in the hospital in critical condition,” another shook his head. 

“Thank you, gentlemen, you have my condolences,” J nodded before standing up, putting on his sunglasses. D already had his sunglasses on already and J opened his suit jacket to grab the neuralyzer. “Now if you’ll all look here, I would greatly appreciate it.” The truckers all leaned forward and looked at it, where J pressed the button and flashed everyone. He put his neuralyzer back in his pocket and cleared his throat. “There were no meteors last night, there was a gas leak explosion, your buddy Mikey is in the hospital due to a crash unrelated to the explosion.” J then soon walked off after that and J and D headed back into the car and drove back onto the highway.

“Told you,” J said with a smug look on his face. The two continued to drive further into Nevada until they reached the gas station the truckers had described earlier. After parking, the two began to look around. The gas station was completely destroyed as were there two craters, one in the road and the other in front of the station, the remnants of a muscle car in the debris. Next to the station was an RV, completely unharmed. The screen door opened and a woman with disheveled hair and a pink vest stood there. 

“Can I help you?” she called out.

“Hi, we’re from the FBI, we’re here to investigate what happened last night,” D replied. She didn’t respond for a moment and then opened the door further to let both of them in. The two of them sat down across from the woman at the RV’s table and upon closer inspection she’d been crying. 

“I already did a full report with the police but they didn’t believe me.”

“Can you tell us what happened exactly last night?” D urged. 

“Stormed out of the RV, askin for a divorce since my husband tried to sleep with my sister, yelled at him for a bit especially with how he wasted our downpayment on a car instead of a house, then this… flaming meteor comes right for us, destroys a semi truck first and then my husband’s car, blew up the gas station too. Then out come these... two cars that looked similar to my husband’s car but they changed into these… giant robots and the blue one… charged up some weapon and then pop!” she gestured with her hands. “No more Roy.” 

“Is there anything they said?” J then asked. 

“Something about… heading west... to the west coast and,” as she continued both J and D put their sunglasses on, J taking out his neuralyzer. “Something about Earth being-” There was a flash and suddenly her mind went blank. 

“Ma’am there were no meteors last night, there was a gas leak from the gas station. One of the truckers stopped by and ignited one of the pumps by smoking near it causing the explosion, thus causing his semi to explode. Your husband was in his car and unfortunately caught in the explosion as well. We were unable to find his remains and I implore you to go on with your life and find someone else new that is more responsible,” D said. The two then left the RV, leaving the woman with a blank face. Once D got outside, he walked up to the edge of the crater where J was. J crouched down in the centre and scooped up some of the dirt into a spectral sensor. The sensor was unable to recognise what it was whatsoever and J sighed.

“This is bad,” J said. “They don’t just turn into jets, it looks like they turn into cars. And I’m getting no spectral trail whatsoever so we need to get information of whatever these are  _ fast _ .”

“Do you think that yellow Beetle we overlooked those few weeks ago may be one of those,” D asked as the two went towards the car. 

“My guess is it probably was,” J replied as he got into the passenger’s. When D started driving, J sat there and thought for a while about everything that was going on. “G said something about the aliens being skittish upon that jet’s arrival. They know something we don’t know.”

“Where we going then?” D replied. 

“We’re gonna have to go to the deli.”

“Oh, come on, man, him?” D sighed, exasperated. 

“You know who else to go to who's an expert on aliens?” D didn’t reply after that but grumbled as he set a new destination for them. The two were quickly back in San Francisco after driving way above the speed limit for most of the time. When they entered Bernal Heights, they drove around for a bit until stopping in front of a corner deli market. Upon leaving the car, D voices his complaints. 

“Can’t we go to someone else?”

“Unless you wanna fly to New York to talk to their alien expert, he’s all we got right now, D, we don’t got a lot of time too, especially now we know these things kill humans,” J replied, opening the door to the deli. The bell above the door rang as the two walked in. Both D and J saw a familiar face and the man behind the counter’s eyes bulged at the sight. 

“Ah! D, J, how’s it going, funny to see you here again,” the man said. 

“No time for idle chat, Simmons,” D replied. “We got some questions we’re hoping you can answer.”

“Well, you came at a good time, then let me just change the sign here,” Simmons said, walking to the front to flip the sign from open to closed. “Now! What can I do for you two gentlemen.”

“We wanna know what you know about cars and jets that transform into giant robots,” J started. Simmons paled and fell quiet.

“You’re not telling me one of them landed here did they?” Simmons whispered harshly.

“Yes, apparently four of them have. One of them though is back at headquarters like a pile of scrap.”

“Well! There goes the neighbourhood,“ Simmons exclaimed. “If people haven’t started warp jumping, I can  _ GUARANTEE  _ they have now. I better tell everyone else to start packing too actually.”

“ _ Why _ , Simmons?!” J said, slamming his hands down on the counter. Simmons jumped in response and he leaned forward on the counter. 

“These robots you’re dealing with? They’re  _ Cybertronians _ , every other planet who knows of ‘em calls them the Transformers. For the past four thousand years, give or take, they’ve been at  _ war _ . Decepticons vs the Autobots!” Simmons said, gesturing with his right and left hand, putting them against each other. “There hasn’t been  _ any  _ peace on that planet nor that side of the galaxy in centuries, and I won’t be surprised if that war is still going on  _ now _ ,” Simmons enunciated, pointing down with his finger. “If we got any aliens jumping, it’s because those Transformers are gonna bring their war to this planet. And I tell you, they do  _ NOT  _ like organics.”

“And the Autobots and the Decepticons,” D asked. “Can we trust either of them?”

“Only an idiot would trust the Decepticons, for what it seems to be, the Autobots are the good guys and tend to hate organics less,” Simmons replied. 

“It’s in their name, D, what did you expect,” J said quietly aside to D in a private conversation. 

“Hey, just clarifying,” D defended just as quietly, raising his hands up in surrender. 

“You guys done here,” Simmons then asked, unamused. 

“No, not yet, how can we identify who’s an Autobot and who’s a Decepticon,” J replied. 

“The two have an insignia of some sorts, something to identify who is who. Now I’ve never been close enough to a Cybertronian to see what they are, but you can ask my friend Spike, the planet he comes from provides refuge for the neutral Cybertronians that fled the planet when the war broke out.”

“Where can we find this Spike?” D asked. 

“He lives in the apartment complexes just off of Ogden and Andover, he’s probably home but his dad Sparkplug definitely ain’t,” Simmons said. “Lives in apartment 3B.”

“Alright, well, thanks for the info, Simmons,” J said. 

“No problem, you want a sandwich?” 

“Yeah, I’ll take one,” J said, putting $10 down. 

“The usual for you, J?” Simmons said as he began working on the sandwich, his various arms coming out to make it quickly. J crossed his arms and looked around the deli as he waited. “Anything for you, Agent D?” 

“No, I’m good,” D replied. When Simmons finished the sandwich, he handed it to J and both agents then left the deli. “And I see you with those illegal deli meats, get that out of sight, human meats on display only,” D called as he walked out. 

“Okay, okay, sheesh,  _ was hoping you wouldn’t notice that _ ,” Simmons replied, muttering the last part. 

“Looks like we got a lead,” J said as he got into the car. He unwrapped the sandwich and began eating it as D drove. 

“Don’t get crumbs all over the seats, man,” D warned. 

“If I do I’ll clean it up,” J replied.

“This whole Cybertronian debacle is turning out to be something bigger than I thought,” D sighed. They made it to the apartment and went in, walking up the stairs to the third story and stopped in front of 3B. D went ahead and knocked on the door, the two standing awkwardly for a moment until they saw a 19 year old boy open the door, freezing once he saw who it was. “Hi! We have a few questions to ask of you about the Cybertronians. May we come in?”

“Y-yeah, what do you wanna know about them though?” 

“Well, Spike, our friend, Simmons, tells us you can give us information on the Autobots and the Decepticons,” J said. 

“Oh,” Spike replied. He paused and looked around. “You wanna sit down? I have some soda if you want any.”

“Please,” J replied politely. Spike walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of sodas from the fridge. He placed the two sodas in front of them and sat down on the couch, lacing his fingers in nervousness. 

“Uh...” Spike started. “Sorry, never had. Men in Black in the house before,” he apologised.

“We’re not here to hurt you or anything,” D assured. 

“We just wanted to know about the Cybertronians, a friend told us your planet hosts neutrals that were fleeing from the war,” J said. 

“Y-yeah, but I left the planet years ago to move here,” Spike said. “My dad knows more about them but he isn’t here right now.”

“Maybe you can tell us this though,” J started. “We just want to know how we can identify Autobots and Decepticon. Simmons told us they have an insignia.”

“Oh! I can help you on that then,” Spike said, perking up. He got up for a moment and ran off into his room, leaving the two agents on the couch. D went ahead and popped his can, sipping the soda. J glanced over at him and he stopped. 

“What? Can’t let it go to waste,” D said. Spike came bounding back into the living room with two rusted badges in his hands. He set them down in front of the two. The two were vastly different, one more squarelike and blocky, the colour a fading red while the other was pointy, its colour a fading purple. 

“This is what Autobots identify themselves as,” Spike said, pointing at the red insignia. “And this is what Decepticons use.” He then pointed towards the purple emblem. “I got these from my friend back on my home planet before I left. He told me they’re authentic and from an actual Autobot and Decepticon. There was a lot of… casualties from what he told me.“

“Alright, we’ll take a photo and send them to headquarters, thanks for the sodas, kid,” J said, taking a photo of both emblems and standing up. 

“Are they here?” Spike then called out as the two got to the door. J and D stopped for a moment and frowned. 

“There’s three of them on the planet. We’re doing our best to make sure they don’t hurt anyone on here,” J then replied. “I just hope they haven’t killed any more humans during their stay here.”


	4. A Way to Communicate

Charlie awoke the next morning with a start, feeling excited for the first time in a while. She threw herself out of bed and dressed in different clothing, throwing aside the same shirt she’d been wearing for the past few days. She strode out of her room with some pep in her step, a smile on her face. When entering the kitchen, she saw her brother, Otis and Ron eating breakfast.

“Morning! See you guys later,” Charlie said with a smile. 

“Where are you off to so fast?” Ron asked. 

“Nowhere,” she said, shaking her head. “Have a nice day,” she smiled. She walked off, entering the garage. “Morning Bumble-” she then saw the yellow Beetle wasn’t in the garage. “Bee?” she then asked. She turned around. “Bee, where are you?” before looking out the open garage door. “Bee?” she called out. “Where did you go?"

“Hey Charlie,” Memo called out as he walked towards her home. 

“Memo, have you seen Bee?” Charlie asked frantically. “I can’t find him, he’s not in the garage!” She ran back into the house, Memo tailing behind. “Otis!” she yelled. “Have you seen my car?” she panted. 

“Unfortunately, yes,” Otis replied snarkily.

“No! Otis, have you seen my car today? It was in the garage, someone stole it!”

“No, idiot, mom took it. She had to bring Conan to the vet because he swallowed like a rubber glove or something and Ron needed the station wagon.”

“Thank god,” Charlie sighed, relieved. After processing it for a moment, she looked up at Otis. ”Wait.” She bolted out to the garage, Memo having been waiting there and joined her as she ran past him. “Gottagodosomethingrealquick, Memo, berightbackwithBee.”

“Do you know where he is?” Memo asked. 

“My mom took him out,” she replied quickly as she got on her bike, turning the motor on and zoomed off. Leaving Memo with his hands on his hips, laughing lightly. Charlie sped down the road, knowing the route to the vet’s. She continued to ride on, seeing Bee down the road and she sped up, swerving. As soon as she grew near she saw Bee’s arm transform, where he began to wave at her. “Oh my god, stop it! Don’t do that!” she scolded Bee. Bee then managed to notice the dog inside and almost tapped on his rear windshield. “Bee, no!” she said, speeding up once more, riding alongside the driver window. Her mom didn’t manage to notice her until Charlie called out to her. Her mom swerved in surprise. 

“Jesus, Charlie, what are you doing?” she asked. 

“Mom, you gotta pull over,” Charlie replied. 

“What the hell is going on?”

“Just _pull_ the _car_ over.”

“Okay, okay, alright,” her mom conceded, pulling to a stop. Charlie stopped behind her, walking towards Bee’s arm, who went to meet her with a wave.

“Would you put that robot junk away?! What were you thinking?” Charlie whispered harshly to which Bee lowered his arm dejectedly and put it away as he was told. 

“You almost gave me a heart attack, I thought I was being carjacked. I’m taking the dog to the vet!” her mom said. 

“I can’t believe you would take him without me. Mom, I was so worried about him!” Charlie exclaimed. “He’s my dog too, y’know.”

“What happened to Conan being Otis’ dog?”

“Mom, you’re being hysterical, okay. You should not be driving in such an emotional state. I know how you get during emergencies.”

“I’m a nurse,” she deadpanned. 

“Not of animals,” Charlie retorted, knowing she was caught. She opened the driver’s door soon after saying that, unsure what else to say. 

“Oh, okay, I’m happy for you to drive,” her mom said. “You weren’t wearing your helmet, by the way, I saw that,” she scolded. 

“Oh, shoot,” Charlie said. She got in the car and whispered ‘keep it together, Bee’. The two went to the vet as planned, Charlie then dropping her mom off at work and immediately driving back to home to meet up with Memo. She drove to a stop on the curb to see Memo had been sitting on the grass, reading a comic book. “I’m back, get in the car, we gotta go do something real quick,” she called out towards him. He closed the comic book and ran back inside, putting it away before hopping into the passenger’s seat as Charlie sat in the driver’s.

“Where to?” Memo asked. 

“The beach, Bee almost went into robot mode in public today,” she replied. 

“Should… I bring a jacket?” Memo said. 

“It shouldn’t be too cold.” She turned the engine on and drove off onto the street, heading towards a beach she knew was almost always empty. When the two arrived, she drove Bee out onto the sand and the two of them got out. “Ok, Bee, we need to go over a few things.” She looked around, making sure no one was there. “Ok! We’re all clear,” she announced, to where Bumblebee transformed right in front of her, kicking up sand. Memo jumped back to not get hit with any and walked around to go to Charlie’s side. “Alright,” she said, spitting out sand. “I’m rethinking the beach.” She spat more sand out with an ‘ugh’. Memo stifled a laugh and Charlie rolled her eyes. Bumblebee though, went and knelt down, ruffling her hair to try and get the sand out. “Oh, I’m good,” she said as Bee continued to ruffle her hair. “I’m good, thanks.” He backed off and before pulling his arms towards him. “Look, people can be terrible about things they don’t understand,” Charlie started. “If they find you, they’ll probably lock you up in a lab somewhere and cut you into tiny little pieces.” To which Bee shook his head and drew himself closer in, in fear. 

“Or the Men in Black might get you!” Memo added. Charlie turned towards him this time in confusion.

“The what?”

“I may have. Watched a few ‘Mysteries in History’ on my free time, one of the episodes was on the Men in Black,” Memo said, she shot him a confused look. “I’ll show you two the episode later,” he said.

“Anyway, it’ll be bad, trust me!” Charlie said. Bee lowered himself this time, drawing closer to Charlie. “The only people you can show yourself around is the both of us, okay?” Bee nodded in response. “So let’s practice, you ready?” she said. Bee nodded quickly again. “So you see anyone else besides me or Memo, what do you do?” Bee, knowing what exactly to do, went ahead and transformed into his altmode with a jump to which Charlie smiled. “Great! Perfect,” she chuckled. “Come back now.” Bee transformed out of his altmode, standing and looking at her. “Ok, so let’s say we’re driving,” she looked over to Memo, motioning with her head to get ready, Memo shot her a look of confusion though in response. “We’re driving and all of a sudden and- Oh shoot, somebody’s here! Hide, Bee, hide!” she exclaimed, running behind the rock, Memo catching on and running after. The two waited to see if he transformed properly, the both of them peeking over the rock only to see Bumblebee hiding behind a very small rock, completely in the open. Memo burst out laughing at the sight and Charlie frowned as she stood up completely. “You serious?” she called out. Bumblebee realised what he did wrong as she looked at him and he rolled into his altmode, Charlie walking out to meet him. “Bee, it’s too late, you’re already dead!” He transformed out, kneeling in front of her, looking down. “It’s ok, that’s why we’re practicing. You’ll get it.”

“Maybe we can run scenarios?” Memo suggested. “Like I can pretend to be someone. Y’know, act it out.”

“Ok, ok, I see what you’re getting at,” Charlie smiled. “Ok, I got a scenario,” she said. She then whispered in Memo’s ear and the two nodded before Memo ran off behind the rock. Bumblebee watched in curiosity as Charlie looked towards the rock for a moment before being given a signal. “Ok, Bee, one more time, let’s say we’re at home right? We’re in the garage, just hanging out and watching… watching a movie! And-”

“MiB open up!” Memo then yelled from the rock, to which Bee immediately responded by transforming into his altmode. Memo then came running out of the rock, mimicking holding a large gun and feigning he was wearing sunglasses. He stood straight and spoke in a deeper voice. “Ma’am we’re here on account that there may be an alien in your household.” It was Charlie’s turn to burst out laughing this time at Memo’s fake deep voice, breaking character. Memo joined in on the laughing as well. “Ok, Bee, you can come out now,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Let’s just do this a few more times and we’ll head back and watch that episode Memo was talking about. Also ‘MiB, open up’?” she said, shooting a teasing look towards Memo. 

“They’d be more subtle and quiet, but I just wanted to announce myself,” Memo shrugged with a smile. The three went ahead and ran through a few more scenarios before Bee finally got the gist of it and whirred in excitement, transforming into his altmode. 

“Well, I think that means he’s got it,” Charlie smiled towards Memo. “Come on, maybe all of us can take a walk somewhere, I know a spot where you can stretch your legs, Bee,” Charlie said, getting into the car, Memo following after. Charlie took control for the time being, driving Bumblebee to a national forest. When she found a good opening that nobody could see, she got out of the car, motioning Memo to come out as well and Bee transformed out, following Charlie and Memo into the forest, they pushed past the brush and luckily the trees were large enough for Bumblebee to stand up properly and walk onto the forest path. When they were all far away enough from the road, Charlie fell behind to walk beside Bee. “Must suck being cooped up in a VW all day, huh?” Charlie finally said, breaking the comfortable silence that fell between the three. “Is there anyone that can help you? Do you have a family?” she then asked. “You know, like a mom, dad, siblings? You all love each other? Or drive each other crazy and you can’t wait to get away and start a whole new life?” she said, trailing off. Memo frowned and tried to steer the conversation away from that, trying to make sure Charlie didn’t think those thoughts.

“Charlie, I don’t think he knows what those are,” Memo said. “Bee, we have… parents, moms and dads, they’re people who raise us from when we’re little and most of the time we’re genetically related,” he explained. “Most of the time they provide support for us and teach us how to be in this world.” Bee thought about it for a moment, taking in what Memo said. The closest thing that he could come up with in that case was Optimus. He definitely could be considered a parental figure in Bumblebee’s life. After all, Optimus was the one who found him and raised him to be an Autobot, eventually becoming a scout for the Autobots but Bumblebee always felt closer to Optimus compared to the rest of the Autobots. Optimus had Ratchet as an amica, but it wasn’t the same as how Bumblebee and Optimus were. Perhaps this ‘parent’ concept could be the answer to what he’s been looking for to define between them. He loved Optimus. But it definitely wasn’t in a way in regards to amica or conjunx. No, this… this was definitely it. Wait. Optimus? Ratchet? How did those names come to him so easily in his processor. Bumblebee went out to reach for the memories only to be met with static. Some electricity then crackled in his chassis as he walked and Bee slowed down, reaching up towards it. 

“Do you want me to see if I can fix it?” Charlie asked. Bumblebee looked at her with uncertainty to which she replied gently, “I’ll be gentle, I promise. Can you sit down for me?” Bee obeyed and sat down on the ground, patting the hard dirt beside him for Memo to join him. Memo was slightly surprised at this and went to sit down beside Bee, which brought a comfort to him. Charlie went ahead and gripped Bee’s chestplating and pried it away, setting it down gently aside. She peered into his chassis, only to see a whole new world of mechanical wonder she’d never seen before. A spark flew within and she breathed out a soft ‘whoa’. “You lay down, ok?” she then said, Bee obliging and laying down onto the ground, Memo still sitting cross legged beside him. “Hold still,” she said, reaching her arm into his chassis. She reached around to try and find _something_ that was out of place. “I think maybe there’s something...” her hand finally found something and pulled, ultimately putting it back into place and a hologram soon turned on right in front of her. Memo immediately stood up out of surprise as the hologram grew, revealing a red and blue robot.

“Bumblebee,” the robot spoke, his voice distorted. “I pray this message finds you. Our war rages on. …Planet Earth… Survival…” Upon hearing his voice, Bumblebee had a flashback, one of the memories coming back to him, remembering that _that_ was Optimus. He remembered watching Optimus dive down to the fight as the escape pod continued to rise higher into the sky, Optimus’ figure shrinking until it was nothing as he left the planet’s atmosphere. “Your mission… soldier… I,” the message cut off, never giving enough information. 

“Are you ok?” Charlie asked Bumblebee, having noticed he was a little off.

“Who was that?” Memo then asked. 

“That voice said something about a… war?” Charlie said. Bee sat up this time and looked ahead, trying to reach out to more memories. “Do you remember anything?” Did he remember anything? Bits and pieces, but it seemed the harder he tried, the less he got. He looked down and shook his head, disappointed in himself. 

“Is the VW beetle… some kind of disguise?” Memo asked. “You’re… robots in disguise?” he said. The two would have laughed about it but this was something serious. 

“Are you hiding from something?” Charlie then asked. Bee couldn’t answer, looking up at her, his optics dim. “Are you scared?” she then asked quietly. He didn’t know what to say. He _couldn’t_ say anything. Bumblebee looked down again, turning away from her, sad that no matter what he wanted to say, he couldn’t anyway. His radio warbled and spat static has he looked away, unknowingly trying to communicate through it. Charlie noticed and bent down to see, discovering the radio was broken, the light flickering. “It’s broken.” She stood up. “It’s ok, I think I can help.” Bee chirped this time with the radio, realising what he was doing and looked up towards her. “Come on, let’s go home.” When the three began to walk back towards the road, Memo put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder in comfort. “I’m beginning to believe that there may be more to us out there, Memo,” she said quietly. “If there’s a war going on… it means he’s from a different planet.”

“It means there’s _more_ of them,” Memo added. “Do you think there are anymore on this planet? What if they’re living their lives as robots in disguise? As someone’s car or something,” Memo said. “Isn’t that weird to think about?”

“I think I’m gonna be looking at the stars a little differently tonight, Memo,” Charlie confessed. “But first, let’s get this radio fixed,” she said, picking up her pace. “I’m guessing you have a tape of that show you were talking about?” she said, getting into Bee.

“Y-yeah,” Memo said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment after having got into the passenger’s. The three got home, Charlie dropping Memo off at his house before pulling into the garage and closing it, getting enough privacy for Bee to transform out of his altmode and hang out. There was a knock on the door a few moments later as Charlie let Memo in, having grabbed the tape. Charlie sat down in front of Bee, leaning onto him as Memo went ahead and put the tape in. 

“Now, fair warning, it’s cheesy, but… trust me on this,” Memo said. The tape began playing as soon as Memo pressed start and the tv began to play cheesy mysterious music as an announcer began to speak. _Mysteries in History. With your host, Peter Graves. Although no one has ever been able to prove their existence, a quasi-government agency known as the Men in Black supposedly carries secret operations here on Earth to keep us safe from aliens throughout the galaxies. Here is one of their stories that “never happened.” From one of their files that doesn’t exist._ Charlie snorted at the different camera pan. _1978._ The tape continued. _The leaders of Zartha leave their planet in order to escape the evil clutches of the Kylothian, Serleena. Arriving on Earth, the Zarthans bring with them, their greatest treasure._ The scene then changed into a group of people in the worst alien costumes ever and Charlie had to stop herself from laughing at how cheesy it was. _The Light of Zartha. A cosmic force SO powerful, that in the wrong hands, it could lead to the annihilation of Zartha. The Zarthan’s princess, Lauranna, beseeched the Men in Black to hide the Light from Serleena. But they had no choice. Intervention would have meant the destruction of planet Earth. However in an act of galactic bravery, the Men in Black subdued Serleena, allowing the Zarthans to escape so they may hide the Light from another planet. Serleena, released from her captors, vowed that the Light would be hers and that she would destroy any planet that stood in her way. And so never knowing what happened, the people of Earth, were once again saved by a secret society of protectors known as the Men in Black._ The tape ended there, Memo turning off the tv and taking the tape out. 

“So… you’re saying these people do exist,” Charlie said. 

“It’s gotta come from somewhere, right?” he replied. 

“What’s gonna happen to Bee if they find him? Are they gonna send _him_ off planet to make sure whatever war they have doesn’t come here?”

“I’m not sure,” Memo confessed. A faint ‘Memo!’ was heard outside and Memo jumped up from his place. “Gotta go for dinner, I’ll see you in a bit!” he said, running out the garage. Charlie couldn’t help but smile towards him as he went out, the door shutting and leaving both Bee and Charlie alone. 

“Well, guess I’m gonna be working on this for a while, here,” Charlie said, standing up and grabbing a movie tape. “You’ll like this,” she said, grabbing ‘The Breakfast Club’. She went ahead and worked on the radio throughout the movie, listening to it in the background. “Alright, I’m almost done,” she announced. The movie ended and she looked over to see Bee intently watching. “No way, are you actually watching it?” she smiled. Bee replied with doing the same motion the man on the screen did. “You can pop in another if you want,” she said, going back to work on the radio. Bee perused the tapes before finding something different, the words ‘Charlie’s Dive Meet’ standing out to him. He took out the movie and popped in this tap, pressing down on the VCR player for it to start. The tape began to play.

“Woo! Come on, sweetie!” a familiar voice rang throughout the garage and Charlie whipped her head, seeing what the tape was. “You got this, Charlie-girl!” The video continued to play, showing Charlie diving down into the water. “Alright, Charlie-girl!” The camera moved this time, showing her father. “Hello, Brighton Falls, this is Charlie Watson, future Olympic gold medalist. That was so perfect!” _Thanks dad._ “You were so amazing.”

“No, no no! Why would you play this,” Charlie asked, lunging out of the car and scrambled to off the tv. Bee raised his arm up in defense, scared that he was going to get hurt. Charlie immediately noticed and stepped back. “Sorry. I just… I finished,” she said, holding the radio in her hands. Bee stood up this time. “Let’s see if we got something,” she said, grabbing a step stool. She knocked on Bee’s chassis this time and took out the old radio, slipping the new one in. She turned the knobs, receiving static for a moment before “Take on Me” began to play. “Oh my god, yes! It worked!” Bee, enjoying the music, began to sway, almost dancing to the music. “Bee, you got some moves!” There was a knock on the door before Memo let himself in. 

“Heard you guys were having a party in here,” Memo teased. “Looks like you got the radio working!” he said. 

“Hey, Memo,” Charlie said, beaming. “The radio’s working perfectly! Look at him dancing,” she said, motioning towards Bee. She couldn’t help but smile towards Bee as he swayed. She then went off to a box of music tapes she kept in the garage. 

“You know, Bee, music can help say what you’re feeling,” Charlie said, rummaging through them before deciding on the Smiths, her favourite band. She went back and went to insert it. “You’re gonna love this, it’s brand new.” ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ then started to play. _Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it’s serious-_ But instead of Bumblebee dancing to the song, he stood still and spat the tape back out, surprising Charlie. “Nota Smiths fan,” she breathed. 

“Don’t worry, Bee, I didn’t like the Smiths at the beginning either,” Memo said. Charlie shot a playful glare towards Memo and he shrugged. “What? You know I like Fleetwood Mac and Wham.” She chuckled, rolling her eyes and looking back towards Bee.

“Ok, um... here,” Charlie said, going back and grabbing another tape. “Try this,” she said, inserting it. Immediately as the words ‘Never gonna give you up’ came out, Bee spat the tape back out, Charlie immediately ducking as it went in her direction. The tape hit tool wall behind her, ricocheting and hitting his shin. He gave a slight ow and picked it up, placing it back in the tape box. 

“Well, if you’re just here figuring out Bee’s music taste, I’m gonna head back inside for the night. I’ll see you tomorrow for work?” Memo asked. 

“Ugh, right,” Charlie said. “I’ll see you, Memo,” she said. He gave a wave and left the garage after that, the door closing shut. “Ok, where’s my Stevie Nicks?” she said, going back to rummage through the box. “Joan Jett and the Blackhearts,” she read out quietly. Bumblebee was intrigued by the record discs instead, moving forward and beginning to flip through them. Charlie, seeing movement beside her, went to see Bumblebee looking through the records. “Hey! Hey, hey, please don’t touch those, please,” she said, moving towards Bee. He backed off once again and she looked towards the records. “They belonged to my dad,” she said quietly. After standing for a moment, looking at them, she approached the records slowly, seeing what record was there for her to see. When she reached out for it, she gave a slight chuckle to what it was. After looking at it, she looked towards Bee. “Do you wanna hear it?” Bee gave a nod, pulling his arms close to himself as Charlie put the record on. The song beginning to play. He let himself relax and he drew closer to Charlie as she stood there, listening to _this_ certain song for the first time in a while. 

“We used to listen to this while working on the Corvette,” she finally said. “It was his favourite,” she whispered. “He used to say it would make the car feel better.” She then looked over towards the Corvette, unfinished and still unable to work. She sighed. “We used to work on this car every weekend together,” she began, walking up to it, placing her hands on the door. “It was our thing.” She then looked towards the photo of her and her dad before turning to Bee. “That tape...” she exhaled. “That was the last time I saw him.” Even if Charlie didn’t have an EM field Bee could feel, he knew this feeling all too well, lowering himself down to meet her height. “He died of a heart attack. I never got to say goodbye.” That was something they had in common then. A memory prodded at Bee as the image of a fallen comrade close to him appeared and whisked itself away. You never got to say goodbye in war after all. “You know, I always thought if I could just...” Charlie’s voice brought him back. “Finish fixing this car. If I could just get it to start up again, he would hear me,” she said, beginning to cry. “He would hear me,” she said looking up. She exhaled once again, trying to compose herself, turning back to the car. Charlie didn’t want Bee to see her this way, but Bee reached out, his servos almost touching her shoulder before pulling away, afraid that he would be overstepping a line. She noticed the movement nonetheless and looked towards him before sniffling and immediately going in for a hug, her arms wrapping around him. He immediately reciprocated it as much as he could, closing his optics as he held her close. This was the first time in a while she allowed herself to grieve in front of someone. The first time she did it was with Memo, when she broke down after immediately quitting the dive team all of a sudden. Memo had only been her friend a few months at the time, still unsure whether or not there was that level of trust yet but when it happened, he held her and made sure to stay with her until she was alright. Ever since then Memo never left her side. 

Bee continued to hold Charlie, letting her grieve quietly as warm tears dripped onto his plating. The two stayed like that for a few minutes, Bee giving her all the time in the world until she sniffled and pulled away, wiping the remainder of her tears off her face. 

“Sorry about that,” Charlie said, clearing her throat, embarrassed at what just happened. Bee shook his head in an effort to tell her not to apologise and tapped his chassis before tapping her sternum. He tried to find a way to tell her that her and him were the same. That even as different species they both still felt the same emotions, that he knew what it was like to grieve. When Charlie gave him a look of confusion, her face still red from crying, he gave into frustration and simply pulled her into a hug once again, patting her back. “Thanks, Bee,” she murmured, hugging him back. His radio then buzzed for a moment as he searched for the words, consistently switching stations and she pulled away from him in confusion. “What are you doing, Bee?” she asked. He continued to switch through stations, until the lyrics ‘ _Every time I hold you, I begin to understand’_ filled the garage . “Wait. Bee, is. Is that your way of trying to communicate?” Bee was soon filled with excitement at this discovery and began dancing, the lyrics ‘ _You got it_ ’ answering her question. “Oh my god, Bee, you’re a genius! That’s why you’re messing with the dial! You’re trying to teach yourself how to talk!” ‘ _Walk like a man, talk like a man’_ was the response. “You’re an actual genius! Oh my god, I gotta go tell Memo!” She ran out the garage as Bumblebee switched over to a different station this time the song ‘Conga’ starting to play. 

Charlie grabbed the few nearest pebbles and threw it at Memo’s window as soon as she got into the yard, hardly able to contain her excitement. There was a faint light in his bedroom, he was probably watching some tv show. When the light turned on in his room completely, he went to his window to see Charlie waving frantically at him. He threw his hands up in confusion and she motioned for him to follow her to which he rolled his eyes, smiled and turned off the light, supposedly leaving the room. The faint light of the television turned off and soon Memo was out the door. 

“Did Bee decide on what his music taste was?” Memo asked.

“No, even better, come on,” she said, running back into the garage, the song ‘Conga’ still playing. Memo and Charlie came in to see Bumblebee dancing to the music which brought a smile to both Charlie and Memo. “Bee! Show Memo what you learned!” she called out. 

‘ _Tonight’s the night we’re gonna make it happen!_ ’ Bee said before switching to another station. ‘ _I can’t live without my radio._ ’

“He learned to talk?” Memo said in awe. “Wow, Bee, that’s amazing!”

‘ _Nobody dreamed that he would try to take it so far,_ ’ Bee replied. Memo chuckled in response and patted Bee’s plating. He knelt down, meeting Charlie and Memo’s height, trying his best to show that he was smiling, optics bright and filials straight up, bouncing lightly. They may not have had EM fields but Charlie and Memo both knew he was happy that he could finally communicate with them. 


	5. Contact

“So we got info on the Decepticons and Autobots, now what do we do?” D asked. 

“We keep our eyes out for anything out of the ordinary. We’re gonna have to eavesdrop on police scanners all around the area. West coast narrows it down to California, Oregon and Washington for our two unauthorised landers,” J replied. “But let’s focus on the other one. The Beetle we ignored. Last we saw it was in Brighton Falls.”

“It couldn’t have gotten that far,” D added.

“That’s why we are focusing on anything out of the ordinary there first,” J said. “Sooner or later something weird is gonna come up with that Transformer and we’ll be the first out to get it.”

* * *

Charlie stretched her arms as she got off of work, having left Bumblebee at home, telling him to behave while she was gone, knowing if she brought him to work he would have gotten restless. She met up with Memo, giving a friendly wave to him as the two went on their motorised bicycles and began to head home for the day.

“You wanna head out later?” Memo asked as the two were on the road. 

“Sure, Bee’s gonna need the outside air anyway,” Charlie replied. “I hate that he has to stay cooped up like that.” 

“Yeah, but what can we do?” Charlie didn’t answer this time, frowning for a moment and the two rode home in a comfortable silence. When the two got to their respective homes, Memo ran in to tell his mom he was going out and joined Charlie as she looked at Bumblebee, who was in his altmode like she asked him to. “Come on, Bee, we’re going out for a drive.” Bee whirred in response before the radio came on. 

‘ _ Oh, let’s go! _ ’ Charlie giggled at his response and got into the driver’s seat, Memo joining her. 

“Where are we planning on going?” Memo asked as Charlie began to drive. 

“Dunno, just wanna. Drive for a while, y’know?” Charlie said, shooting him a smile. 

“I’m cool with that,” he said, getting comfortable. 

“Hey, watch this, though. His reflexes are amazing,” she said, letting go of the steering wheel. She took off the jacket she was wearing and wrapped it around her head as a blindfold, tapping Bee’s roof. The roof opened and Memo almost said something in protest as she stood up, grabbing Memo’s hand in the process, pulling him up with her. Upon her grabbing his hand he immediately shut up and was dragged up. Charlie let go of Memo’s hand and threw her arms up in the air as Bee took control, driving down the road. She let out a ‘woo!’ before her jacket flipped up, Memo yelping and snatching the jacket before it flew off. “Guess you got some amazing reflexes too,” Charlie laughed, Memo chuckling as the two continued to stand, Bee driving down the road. The two looked over to the bay, the sun just a couple of hours away from setting. When they both saw a cliffside with various cars on it, they sat down and Bee pulled in. “What is going on here?” Charlie asked. Teenagers all from Charlie and Memo’s high school were here

“Hey, that’s Jim from sixth period! He said he was busy this week,” Memo chuckled before trailing off. “D- You want to check it out? This is pretty cool!” They found a parking stop and pulled to a stop. 

“Bee, we’ll be right back. Don’t do anything crazy,” Charlie said, getting out of the car.

“Hey everybody, come watch! Tripp’s gonna jump!” a boy called out . “You’re off your nut!” a girl said. “Don’t do anything crazy,” another said. 

“What’s going on over there?” Memo asked, seeing the commotion up on the hill. 

“Come on, it’s not that big of a jump,” supposedly Tripp, said.

“God, is that Tripp Summers?” Charlie asked, recognising him. 

“Oh, you, you know Tripp?” Memo asked.

“Yeah, I spilled like. A gallon of lemonade on him once.”

“Wait, that was the dude you spilled lemonade on?”

“Doesn’t anyone have the balls to jump off this thing with me?” Tripp announced. Bee, being cheeky, opened his driver door and hit Charlie lightly, pushing her forward. He knew she was an amazing diver. Maybe this was her chance. Charlie turned towards Bee a moment and looked at him in disbelief before Tripp called her out. “Ah! A brave volunteer,” Tripp said, gesturing towards her. 

“See, I-I didn’t do that,” Charlie started but Bee turned on his radio. 

‘ _ You got the touch. You got the power! Yeah! _ ’ Charlie turned to look at Bee once again in surprise this time.

“Hey! I know you,” Tripp said, approaching Charlie. 

“Uhh, yeah, sorry about that,” Charlie said, thinking it was about the lemonade incident. 

“You were on the dive team with my little sister, I saw you win state a couple years ago.” He scoffed. “Ladies and gentlemen, this just got a whole lot more interesting. We have a championship high diver on our hands!” Everyone then cheered for Charlie, to which she only wanted to leave even more .

“Actually, I d- I don’t do it anymore,” Charlie said quietly. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t make you go first,” Tripp replied, giving her a smile. He then sprinted off and jumped off the cliff with a whoop. The high schoolers looked over and Tripp called up from below. “Dive girl! You better not back out on me!” he yelled. The crowd cheered as Charlie approached the edge of the cliff, the rest of the kids chanting ‘dive’ over and over. She stood there at the edge, taking deep breaths as she contemplated whether or not she should jump. But when the time came, all she could think about was her father. ‘You got this, Charlie girl!’ echoed in her head and suddenly she froze before backing away from the edge trying to keep herself from having a breakdown. The sound of the kids booing her was drowned out by her own thoughts. When she drew near the car, Memo immediately recognised how she was feeling and placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort, not saying anything. 

“Let’s just go,” she said, her voice cracking. She opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat for a moment, trying to take deep breaths in attempts to calm down. Memo went in to sit down beside her. The two sat there for a moment before there was a knock on Charlie’s window.

“Where’re you going, sweetie?” the girl asked. She then pointed down for Charlie to roll down her window. Memo almost went to stop her but Charlie rolled down the window regardless and the girl gave her a disdainful smile. “What happened out there? That was your big moment to look cool.”

“What’s your damage, Tina?” Memo snapped. 

“Is that the churro guy?” one of Tina’s goons said. “Where’s your hairnet, dude?” the other asked

“It’s in the garbage, Einstein. You throw them away after each use. For sanitary purposes, obviously but...” Memo’s comeback soon fell flat and he went quiet, glaring at the goon that was glaring at him. 

“This car is an embarrassment,” Tina said. Charlie didn’t respond, only looking at her as if she had no idea what this car really was. “You should have your dad, buy you a better one,” she then said. Soon Charlie’s face fell and Tina fake pouted. “Oh, wait…” Tina then gave a fake look of condolence. “Sorry,” she whispered. Her goons then started laughing and she gave a wicked smile before patting the car and walking off. Charlie sat, her eyes shut as she tried to calm herself down once again. 

“You ok?” Memo asked quietly. 

“I’m fine,” Charlie replied. 

“You know that’s not true,” Memo said. She didn’t respond this time and he sighed. “They’re idiots and they’re brats. But I think I know something that’ll make you feel better.” 

“What?”

“Reveeeenge,” he whisper sang. 

“I don’t want revenge,” she said, shaking her head. 

“I do,” Memo said. “What about you, Bee? You want some revenge?” Bee’s radio then turned on as it shuffled through some stations. ‘ _ I just want - Revenge. I’m mad! _ ’ Mad was an understatement to what Bumblebee was feeling. The fact that Tina had said something like  _ that  _ when Bee fully knew what had happened to Charlie’s father was something that made him want to do at least  _ anything  _ to make Charlie feel better.

When the sun had set and everyone had left the cliffside to their homes, Memo and Charlie had taken Bee to the grocery store to pick up some things. When the two came back with some objects that Bumblebee was unfamiliar with, Charlie took the wheel and began to drive to their surprise destination. She parked on the side of a rather wealthy looking house and got out, grabbing the supplies. Bumblebee transformed when the coast was clear, looking at what Charlie had in her hand intently. 

“This is Tina’s house,” Charlie whispered. “And this, it’s toilet paper,” she said holding up the roll. “You use it for when you...” she started to explain and then stopped, deciding against it. “Here, just take a roll,” she said, handing the roll to Bumblebee. When he grabbed it he squeezed at the roll, the toilet paper roll exploding in his digits, his optics brightening in surprise at how weak the material was. “No, no, no, no, no, you’ve got-” Memo chuckled at Bumblebee’s surprise and confusion towards the roll. “You’ve got to throw it,” she said, taking a roll for herself and fiddling with it. “Like this,” she demonstrated, tossing the toilet paper roll onto a nearby tree right in front of Tina’s house. “Not bad!” she laughed, looking towards Memo. Bumblebee seemed to understand what needed to be done and took the entire set of toilet paper rolls from Memo’s hands and tossed it high into the air, the rolls dispersing and falling slowly as streams of it flew behind. He bent down towards Charlie and Memo this time, chirping in hopes to be praised for what he did. When Charlie and Memo made a weird face that Bumblebee couldn’t recognise, Memo spoke. 

“Not… yeah, um. Ok, look, Bee, you be our egg man. Right? Yeah,” Memo said, grabbing the egg carton on the ground. 

“Love that,” Charlie said.

“You see these right here?” Memo said, opening the egg carton. He then grabbed an egg from it. “You grab one of these, like so. And that right there?” He said pointing at the car parked closest to Tina’s house. “That’s your target. Alright? Just throw it like this,” he demonstrated, tossing the egg over to where it landed with a splat on the windshield. “Haha,” he said triumphantly. 

“I think we could just hand it to him,” Charlie said in a hushed tone to Memo but Bumblebee had other ideas and grabbed the egg cartons from Memo’s hands. He then trotted over towards Tina’s cars and Charlie and Memo looked over in confusion. “Uh...”

“Bee, what are y-”

Bumblebee then opened both egg cartons, clapped his hands together and then began to spread the eggs on the car’s roof. Both Charlie and Memo started laughing, jumping as Memo playfully pushed Charlie. Charlie letting out a “Don’t hurt me!” as she laughed. Bumblebee, seeing the playful commotion then began to slam at the car before kicking the car in, getting on top and stomping all over it as if he were dancing. Charlie and Memo’s laughter and smiles immediately dropped as they realised Bee wrecked Tina’s car. 

“Oh shit,” Charlie breathed. They watched as Bumblebee hopped up and down on the car, the alarm beginning to go off, startling Bumblebee. The lights to the house then turned on and Bee stopped his jumping, Charlie and Memo ducking down, trying to hide from the owners. She saw Bumblebee frozen and she motioned with her hand, calling out to him. “Hide, Bee!” she yelled quietly. Bee then tipped the car over and sat down, covering his head as his way of hiding. Charlie then popped up again and waved her arm over, Bumblebee getting into his altmode and starting to drive, the doors open for both of them to get in as they ran towards Bee. “Go, go, go!” she said as she and Memo scrambled in. The three hightailed it out of there, Bumblebee racing out of the neighbourhood and taking a mountain road to get home.

As Bumblebee began to speed down the mountain road, he failed to notice the police car.

“That was. Insane,” Charlie said, still buzzing from the excitement. “My heart right now is going crazy!”

“We should have done this earlier,” Memo laughed. The two then heard sirens from behind. Memo looked behind and said “uh oh.”

“Oh god,” Charlie breathed. 

“Stop the car, please,” Memo then said. Instead, Bumblebee began to speed up.

“Bee, what are you doing? What are you doing?!” Charlie exclaimed. The radio then warbled, the lyrics  _ I can’t drive! 55!  _ Blaring from the radio. The two yelled out as Bumblebee began to race through all the cars on the road, swerving around. At some point, Bumblebee drove off the side and grabbed onto the railing, passing the rest of the cars. When they entered a tunnel, Charlie covered her face with her hands. “Oh my god, we’re committing a felony!” When the police car drew near, Bumblebee set the chairs down to make sure the policeman didn’t show their faces. Charlie and Memo only hoped that they wouldn’t get caught.

* * *

“So your idea of hunting down this Cybertronian is to stick around in Brighton Falls. At a motel,” D said with incredulity. 

“Got any better place to stay that’s inconspicuous? We have to make sure we can get out of here as quickly as possible as soon as we hear something,” J replied, listening to the police radio. 

“Man, I’m pretty sure there’s roaches in here!” D complained. J didn’t reply this time and listened intently to the police chatter. So far the past few hours had nothing and J was growing impatient. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was 9:40pm. He’d been doing this for 3 hours now. There had to be something. And finally. The announcement they’d been waiting for finally came. 

_ We got a yellow vehicle driving its damn self through the Pico Tunnel!  _

“We got a hit!” J yelled out as he stood up. “Let’s go,” J said, D following quickly after as the two got in the car and sped off towards the Pico Tunnel. Once the two were on the road, D let out a sigh. 

“So it was that yellow Beetle we overlooked,” D said.

“Seems like it, we’ll need to be cautious on what side it’s on,” J said. “For all we know we could be dealing with a Decepticon.”

“I hope not,” D said. “Especially if they’re known to kill people.” As they entered the mountain pass towards Pico tunnel, they drove past a yellow Beetle that sped by coming out of the tunnel. J immediately drifted, turning around and began to give chase to the yellow Beetle. “How’re we gonna do this, J?”

“We’re gonna follow them, I haven’t sped up at all but they’ve definitely noticed how I turned like that when I saw the yellow Beetle,” J said. 

“So hopefully they take a detour and try to throw us off their scent,” D replied. 

“Planning on it.”

And as they expected, the yellow Beetle in front of them took a different route than the one leading back to Brighton Falls.

“Bee, what are you doing?” Charlie asked. “Home’s the other way, why’re we going this way?” Memo then looked at the rearview mirror and saw a black, inconspicuous car following closely behind. When Charlie noticed, her eyes widened. “Shit, that’s not another police car is it?”

“No, I,” Memo gulped. “I think it’s the Men in Black,” he said. 

“Memo, please don’t joke around right now,” she said. When Memo gave her a look that meant he was serious, she paled. “Alright, what do we do then?”

“We stop the car, they won’t hurt us as long as they know we’re human,” Memo said hastily. 

“How will they know that?” Charlie asked. Memo didn’t respond this time and gave a shrug as he squeaked. “Ok,” she said with finality. “Bee, pull over,” she said. Bumblebee chirped in disagreement but drove off the side of the road into an open dirt area. Possibly a rest stop for those who wanted to look at the scenery. When Bumblebee stopped, the black car pulled over as well, parking right behind them. Charlie and Memo sat in their seat in silence for a moment before Memo exhaled and unbuckled his seatbelt, opening the door. The two got out of the car slowly, the headlights shining upon them as the doors of the black car opened. In the light they could see two men in black suits and ties. 

“Yup, that’s definitely Men in Black,” Memo said quietly to Charlie, his voice having a nervous tone.

“Hey there!” one of the agents called out. “Can I ask why both of you are out here so late?”

“Just, went out for a night ride, y’know, like how teenagers do,” Memo replied. Charlie simply nodded. 

“Right… and we just heard there was a yellow vehicle driving itself in the Pico tunnel,” the agent replied. “Know anything about that?”

“Nope!” Charlie said, shaking her head. “I was at the wheel. No self driving cars, that’d be absurd.”

“Right,” the agent replied. He then took out his sunglasses as well as his partner. 

“Wait!” Memo then yelled, raising his hands and looking away. “Don’t. Don’t neuralise us. Please.” Both of them stopped and paused for a moment. 

“You know who we are?” the other agent asked.

“Yeah, you’re, you’re the Men in Black,” Charlie said. 

“Oh boy,” the agent sighed. “Ok, I’m just gonna cut to the chase then. A few weeks ago, there were two unauthorised landings that resulted in a large ship, similar to an escape pod, to land at a local campground spooking and disturbing their wonderful night of sleeping in the wilderness. We only found the remains of what seemed to be a fighter jet at the scene. Only thing was, we found something that doesn’t belong to a jet.”

“A head,” the other agent finished. “And it was a nasty crime scene, as if whatever killed that thing left. When we went to investigate, we overlooked a broken down yellow Beetle, very similar to that one.”

“So we want to ask and this is for your safety as much as the rest of the planet’s,” the agent asked. “Is that yellow Beetle behind you right now, a Cybertronian.”

“Or a Transformer, if that helps,” the other agent said. 

“Can we ask you something, first?” Memo then asked. “What are your names?” 

“I’m J and he’s D, now can you answer our question?” Memo and Charlie then looked towards each other for a moment.

“We know you don’t want to expose your friend at all, but this is important. A couple days ago, there were two more unauthorised landings in Nevada that blew up a gas station and killed one man and hospitalised another. The report was that the two landers had transformed into vehicles and drove off,” D said. 

“And now those vehicles are driving to the west coast now in pursuit of this yellow Beetle, which could put you and your friend in danger,” J finished. Before Memo and Charlie could say anything to make a proper decision, the two heard mechanical sounds from behind as Bumblebee transformed from his altmode, revealing himself in front of everyone. 

“Bee,” Charlie breathed as she turned towards him. He looked towards her with dim optics, ones filled with worry before looking towards the MiB agents. He made a whirr to let her know everything was alright. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This fanfic draws heavily from the Bumblebee movie but overall it's just something that's been brewing in my mind for a while! I'm gonna make some changes to the plot, especially since I wanna expand on the MiB elements but it's really got me thinking for a while. What would it be like if the Transformers and MiB were in the same universe? 
> 
> Btw Danny Bell is Jack Burns' friend in the movie, he was the leader of the opposite team in the paintball scene that ended up hanging upside down in Burns' trap, hopefully that provides enough context!


End file.
